Magnussen Takes Round 20 Victory

Kevin Magnussen finally shirked his incessant run of bad luck with a deserved win at Spa Francorchamps. The Carlin driver finished ahead of fellow British Formula 3 team-mate, Rupert Svendsen-Cook, while F3 Euroseries contender Daniel Juncadella completed the overall podium and took the FIA International Trophy honours.

Starting from pole position, Magnussen comfortably held his lead into La Source and never looked back – his leading gap up to 1.9s by the end of the lap 1. Over the 8 lap race the gap levelled off at around 2.5s from Svendsen-Cook – who never mounted a challenge for the lead.

“Maybe my luck has turned a little bit,” said Magnussen, whose fourth win it was. “I have needed some luck for a long time now. I'm happy for the win and happy to have turned the weekend around. I have saved my good tyres for the race tomorrow, so hopefully I can go well then too.”

Svendsen-Cook had to fight for his 2nd place though, after an electrifying start from Prema Powerteam’s Daniel Juncadella saw the Spaniard jump from 8th to 2nd on the opening lap. But Svendsen-Cook quickly reclaimed the place on the next lap before settling down behind his leading team-mate.

“That's four podiums in four weekends now and I'm very happy. Qualifying was crazy: I was stuck with a car set up for the wet, on wet tyres on a dry track. To come back with fourth this morning and second this afternoon is really good. Our pace is evident.” Svendsen-Cook said afterwards.

“Everything went well,” said Juncadella. “My start was very good; I was already fourth after the first corner, and then I made it to P3 when two cars ahead hit each other, and then I passed Rupert at the final corner of the first lap. I was probably running a little more downforce than the others, so Rupert overtook me again and I had to stay behind him because I needed his slipstream on the straights.”

In 4th place was FIA International Trophy runner Hannes van Asseldonk, an impressive result considering the Dutchman started all the way from P12 on the grid. With an ordinary start, it was the Van Amersfoort driver’s aggressive race-craft that brought him to the front of the field – setting the fastest invitational class lap on his way past Marco Wittmann, Carlos Munoz and Laurens Vanthoor to claim a class podium.

The final spot on the British F3 podium went to championship leader Felipe Nasr, who struggled in Round 19 with engine troubles. “We had a problem with the engine, it was running on only three cylinders in the first race,” said Nasr. “So in this race it was important to try to get some good points.”

Jazeman Jaafar and F3 Euroseries championship leader Roberto Merhi collided on the opening lap, with the majority of the blame falling on Jaafar, who was later excluded from the overall result. Merhi recovered to finish only 15th, but starts on pole for the 3rd race of the weekend on Saturday. Fortec team-mates Harry Tincknell and Fahmi Illyas also made contact at the bus stop early in the race, putting each other both into retirement.

Kotaro Sakurai finished the race to claim the Rookie Class victory, his 8th of the season.